Most Common Mistakes MMA Fighters Make in a Fight
MMA is the most versatile combat sport where you can lose or win a fight in a million different ways. No matter how skilled they are, fighters can’t cover all the scenarios, and that’s what makes it exciting. In a chaotic sport with so many variations, factors, techniques, and outcomes, there are many mistakes as well.
The margin for error at the top UFC level is very, very small. In a split second, a small mistake can quickly end up in a vicious KO, or loss of a different type. Although they are the finest athletes in the world in our view, even the best UFC fighters often make mistakes. At times, they might get away with it, but in some cases, it ends in a bad loss.
In this article, we will explore the most common mistakes MMA fighters make in a fight.
Going out of their element
MMA fighting is a sport in which fighters can’t excel in all areas of the game. Some fighters are great wrestlers or BJJ fighters, while others are masters in Muay Thai. During the bout, each fighter is trying to stick with what they know best to impose their will, which minimizes the risk of losing. If you ask MMA coaches and experts, they will all tell you that the key to victory is to stick with the game plan and never go out of your element.
If you are a wrestler then your job is to find a way in to score a takedown and dominate from the top. The last thing you need to do is to stand and brawl with a person who has elite Muay Thai skills and vice versa. Even though there’s no logic in going out of your element, many elite fighters actually do this.
In most cases, these fighters want to test their skills in other areas and see if the hard work in the gym paid off. This is fine as long as you don’t play with fire too much. But some fighters get too comfortable out of their element that they get “caught” into a choke or knocked out on the feet.
To be honest, this rarely happens on the elite level of the UFC for instance. You can see these things more often in smaller promotions or among amateurs.
Getting into a brawl
There’s nothing like seeing two elite MMA fighters biting on the mouthpiece, stepping into the pocket, and trading wild blows. These are the scenarios MMA fans live for and are one of those things that make us jump out of our seats. But from the technical point, most fighters avoid these types of close-range brawls as the risk is just too high. When two skilled strikers start swinging in the pocket, the chances are, in most cases, 50–50. One of them is going down that’s for sure.
In most cases, fighters prefer to keep the opponent at safe range and pick them apart from the distance. Or, they would find a way into the pocket to land a strike, and then quickly get back at safe range like Wonderboy is doing. This is what you call a strategic or tactical approach in fighting where there is a calculated risk behind every move. On the flip side, there’s nothing calculated in staying inside the pocket where even the strongest chins get cracked.
The biggest risk of getting into a brawl is being hit with the punch or kick you don’t see coming. At distance, you can see the strikes coming and you can move, block or brace for the impact. But you can’t see much inside the pocket partly because you are at a close distance, and because of the adrenalin rushing through your vanes.
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Failing to make adjustments
You can often hear elite UFC fighters talking about how they are always able to find a way to win a fight. Even when things do not go as planned in the camp, these fighters have the ability to stay calm, realize what they are doing wrong, make adjustments and win.
In some way, this is what separates great fighters from the average ones. MMA is a wild game in which there’s no such thing as dominating each and every fight from start to finish. At some point in your career, you will face an opponent who will have an answer for all your weapons.
In the UFC, each fighter comes into a fight with a game plan they put together with their coaches in the camp. But once the cage doors close, things can quickly go south. This is where reading the opponent and making small or big adjustments in the middle of the fight discplays a big role. But not all fighters can make correct changes, which is often the cause of their loss.
One of the best examples of this was the fight between Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya. Costa had a hard time closing the distance and dealing with the leg kicks. He failed to make a single adjustment to stop Adesanya from picking him apart. You could see Costa making the same mistakes over and over again until he got KO’d.
Getting too comfortable
Losing because you or the team got too comfortable happens in every single sport. In MMA, it’s always hard to watch a fighter leading the dance the entire fight, and lose because they failed to keep the focus till the end. This is why during the fights you can often hear the coaches yelling “focus, focus!” from the corner. We can’t stress enough how crucial it is to stay composed and even have a dose of fear during the fight.
This is notably true in MMA where you can find yourself on the losing end in a split of a second. As long as the opponent is standing in front or is fighting back, you should fight like it is the beginning of the bout. No matter what happens, MMA is versatile enough to give you problems.
Fighters who get too comfortable would often go out of their element, or do things they normally never do. You can even say they get cocky to some extent, but more about that later. At the same time, you have the opponent who, although taking damage, is waiting for a tiny mistake to knock your head out in the second row.
UFC fighters who got too comfortable and paid for that were Holly Holm and Chael Sonnen. They both lost their title bouts due to the lack of high focus in the closing stages of the fight. Holm lost her title in the 5th round by playing too much on the ground with Meisha Tate. Sonnen dominated the fight up until the last minute when Silva caught him into submission.
Getting cocky or too emotional
This is one of the worst mistakes MMA fighters can make. It’s not just about losing the fight, it’s also about looking really bad in the eyes of the fans. I mean, there’s nothing worse than seeing a fighter you like get cocky and then get knocked out cold. Those instant karma moments are the last thing any fighter wants to be remembered for.
As said earlier, there are fighters who get too comfortable in a fight, and in most cases, they get away with it. But fighters who push the bar even higher are the ones who just can’t control their emotions. Once in control of the fight, these fighters would get cocky, start provoking and go way out of their element.
Even though being confident is good, going too far and being arrogant is like walking on thin ice. You are not fighting by your instincts and making rational decisions anymore. No, you got overwhelmed by emotions and ego.
The same stands if we look at it the other way around where we have a fighter who is struggling in a match. Some of them get frustrated to the point where they will abandon the game plan, start headhunting, and in most cases, lose a fight.
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